The Earth in a rare alignment of Jupiter and Saturn – Watch video

A rare phenomenon had the opportunity to observe yesterday those who looked at the sky to the southwest in the northern hemisphere and an hour after sunset.

The two largest planets in our solar system, the Saturn and Jupiter they got closer and seemed to meet in a celestial event that astronomers call “Great pairing».

The combination of the two planets this year coincided with Winter Solstice , when the sun is as far south of the equator as possible, when the shortest day of the year is observed and defined as the official start of winter in the northern hemisphere. See Google’s message about the phenomenon here.

The very rare “marriage” of planetary giants Jupiter and Saturn in Earth’s sky occur about once every 20 years. But the last time Jupiter and Saturn were close was in 1623, and this passage was not visible from most of Earth.

This spectacular astronomical phenomenon is the first to occur in Earth’s night sky in centuries. In fact, Saturn will be at least 730 million kilometers behind Jupiter, which will be 890 million kilometers from Earth.

TOMORROW Jupiter and Saturn will be at their closest separation in the sky from 1623 at 0.1 ° apart. Here’s an animation showing exactly how close that is in relation to a familiar object, the Moon! (Moon ONLY added to illustrate scale) # GreatConjunction2020 pic.twitter.com/2mvdl6KjmI

– Dr. James O’Donoghue (@physicsJ) December 20, 2020

The last great visible docking occurred long before the telescopes in 1226, in the middle of the construction of its Catholic cathedral. Notre Dame de Paris.

The brightness of the two planets in the sky has sparked a debate as to whether it was “Christmas starThat the New Testament describes how to lead the three wise men to the baby Jesus.

The German astronomer, Johannes kepler, wrote in 1614 that he believed that “Belen starIn the Nativity story it could have been “a meeting of Jupiter and Saturn.” However, the astronomer Billy titch, managing director of the Dyer Observatory at Vanderbilt University in Brentwood, Tennessee, said a wonderful couple is just one of many possible explanations for the biblical phenomenon.

Saturn in many areas with clear skies was seen with binoculars or the naked eye on the upper right of Jupiter, while visible, with an amateur telescope, were four large satellites of Jupiter and at least one of Saturn.

The phenomenon was broadcast live by various observatories through YouTube.